Europe

formal request to the board of OSGeo to recognise OSGeo.eu as a local chapter xx June 2016

next board meeting: 15 October 2015 (decision about the acceptance of the proposal)

todolist

Decide about the legal structure

...

Introduction

FOSS4G Europe is rooted in the FOSS4G Central and Eastern Europe conference series, back in 2012. The latter evolved in 2014 as the first edition of FOSS4G Europe in Bremen. The conference is now becoming the main european FOSS4G event, gathering people and OSGeo local chapters from all over Europe and beyond.

Since the conference in Bremen, thoughts and ideas where exchanged to organise OSGeo more on a European basis. The Industry group was started, a platform of people supporting the idea arose, but there was no real initiative for action.

This year we (OSGeoEU) have the ambition to organise a legal entity OSGEO-EU to create a stronger software group in Europe to defend the rights of open source from the perspective of the Geo-ecosystem.

In preparation for this official expression of interest, a couple of
meetings have already taken place.
a physical BOF @FOSS4G 2014 in Bremen, some mails, a BOF @FOSS4G 2015 in Como and some one physical meetings.

Why should OSGeo have a European local chapter

Europe has specific needs in terms adoption rate of open source software.

An important initiative called 'INSPIRE' needs specific localised attention.

OSGeo.EU is a sparring partner and representation (Single point of contact) for the European institutions in Brussels on behalve OSGeo, the other committees, local chapters and projects. Giving the existing local chapters a voice in Brussels.

Europe also has specific business ecosystem.

more than 99% of all the European businesses are SME's

software industry in Europe is as big as the software industry in the US, but the driving forces are more divided

FLOSS can be used as an opportunity to create a strong industry leadership in Europe

OSGeo.EU can play a supporting role in this process

Mission and objectives

After discussion amongst the active local chapter members we come to the
following list of mission objectives:

Community-building and networking around specific European themes

support the European OSGeo members using FOSS4G software, help them to organise and bring into contact with governmental agencies and research institutes. Help them with European funded projects.

encourage interoperability in European projects

support European open standards and European directives such as INSPIRE

provide support for the use of OSGeo software in education via European curriculum development, outreach, and capacity building

to encourage communication between the different European local chapters